Welcome (to nobody in particular)

Welcome. I might be saying this to nobody and that won’t be a problem. This blog, at least at the moment, is just for myself, somewhere just to collect my thoughts…

I should introduce myself nonetheless. My real name is not Duncan Ferguson and neither am I a Goodison Legend, much as I’d like to be. I am, however, a lifelong supporter of Everton Football Club and don’t mind admitting that when it comes to EFC rationality takes a back seat – with everything else the truth is paramount. Hopefully the real Duncan won’t get to find out about this or for sure given his fearsome reputation, my days are numbered. I don’t even like pigeons. I can’t say that I was ever Duncan’s biggest fan but I do know many Evertonians who would routinely describe him as a god. This brings into question the nature of gods, and in the context of what follows, gives me an ironic reason for taking Duncan’s name in vain.

I’m interested in lots of things, football ahead of everything – that goes without saying –  but also anything that allows me to know something today that I didn’t know yesterday. Learning is a bit of a hobby. So I try to follow science, economics, anthropology, the list is endless. And one thing more than most is an interest in how others think – in particular the religious mindset. I was, I think, eight years old, when I decided for myself that the evidence in favour of gods was non-existent and therefore neither I nor anyone else had any reason to believe in such things. In the intervening forty-six years nothing has changed except that I know more about religious thought. As a result of actually examining the arguments I’m even more convinced then I was then. But still that doesn’t detract from the interest I have.

But more than that, we now seem to be living in an age where religion is simultaneously becoming less important to some but more important to others. I don’t think that religion has anything at all to offer mankind if we’re to establish a society in which it’s worth living – and it’s not just 9/11 and such like that makes me think that. If I’m not careful I could go on now for thousands upon thousands of words so I’ll stop there for now. I don’t even know as I write this if I’ll ever return.

But I did decide to do my little bit for the forces of goodness and became a resident non-believer on a Christian forum. My little input is to be found all over the place here:

The non-believers forum

To be fair there are a lot of good people there, and even the bad ones think they’re good. That’s probably because they can’t tell the difference. I always enjoyed it – I’d rather confront the “enemy” than join up with Agreement Central anytime. But it’s getting to be a waste of time. I write much too much yet could do so much more, but no Christian responds with anything more than platitudes and cliches. If I’m wrong I’d think people would be interested in correcting me but they don’t even seem to care whether their own thoughts are true as long as they fit what they already think. In some ways this is not surprising and confirms what I thought all those years ago. More to the point, the forum was recently taken over by some “entrepreneur” which has led to both technical and ethical issues. There’s not much point staying.

So I’ve started this blog in homage to Big Dunc. Thanks for the name, thedozerator.

If I have the time I’ll probably end up repeating some of the thoughts I put down there. But I do intend to make this something about everything – it won’t be all about religious madness, I’ll have a bit of sporting, musical and political madness too. Till the next time.